Opera Mini Next 7.0 Browser Now Available For BlackBerry

One could argue that Opera Mini is the best alternative browser for BlackBerry. Personally I use it and actually prefer it over the native browser at times. Personally I like that it renders some pages better than the native browser, and it seems to be faster as well. So needless to say I was happy to hear that version 7.0 has been released for the BlackBerry. Opera has always done a great job supporting BlackBerry devices, so its nice to see it being updated almost in sync with other platforms.

Before you jump to the download, please note that Opera Next is sort of like a beta version of the "Next" release of Opera Mini. So it will install along side of your existing Opera Mini installation as a white icon. That way if it crashes or does not work correctly you can always remove it, and continue using the stable version.

This version has quite a few features. Here are some of them taken from the change log:

Opera Mini Next has the following new features:

Smart Page

The most visible new feature is perhaps the redesign of the start screen and the addition of Smart Page. This page gives you an overview of your favorite sites, latest updates from social networks (Twitter and Facebook), news gathered from your favorite sites (via their RSS feeds) and suggested links. Note that you can clear the Smart Page by selecting "Clear history" from the privacy settings.

Support for more than 9 speed dials

One common complaint has been the restrictions on the number of speed dials. We have now solved this and you can add as many as you like, or in practice as many as your device can handle. Synching your speed dials between desktop and Opera Mini should be a much nicer experience now. Note that there is a couple of known issue when synching with Opera Link. Speed dials may move around unexpectedly and the order can be inconsistent.

We have also added a convenient way to add new speed dials: just press the star found in the address bar (touch devices only).

Improved support for RTL

Right-to-left text in UI elements should now be correctly drawn. We would like to fix as many of the these bugs as possible, so if you find issues, please report them.

Tab improvements

Tabs can now be closed with one click on touch devices. And when you close a tab, Opera Mini will switch to the last used tab.

No more "www." in address bar

Most sites today can be used without the WWW prefix. So we have removed it as well. The auto completion still supports it of course.